Friday, November 6, 2015

Quote:And the Buddha said, "There is suffering in us. And we usually blame on the outside, on the environment, on the people. And we think the other person is enemy No.1, our enemy No.1." The Buddha said, "Looking deeply, you will find out that enemy No.1 is ourselves. It is ourselves who make ourselves suffer the most. The way we consume, the way we look for happiness, the way we eat, the way we drink, the way we organize the life, the way we look for happiness, the way we behave the suffering that we undergo has been created mostly by us. We are the worst enemy of ourselves." That's what the Buddha said. We are responsible for our own suffering. Do not blame on suffering. Do not blame another person outside of you for your suffering. You are the author, the main author of your suffering. You are enemy No.1. Your enemy No.1 is you. And that is why looking into the heart of suffering, we can identify the source of nutriment we have used to feed it. We might have thought that this is good for us. But so far, it has made us suffer a lot. And once we have recognized the source of nutriment for our ill-being, we just cut it. And our suffering will have to die. And this can be done together as a sangha. In the tradition, we always practice with the sangha. Whether it is the sitting or walking, we can always make good use of the collective energy of the sangha. And the sangha can offer us a shining light and support us. And the sangha may advise us on the roots of our own suffering and how to stop feeding our suffering.And that's why taking refuge in the sangha is not the declaration of the faith, but it is a practice. We can do that together. We can meditate together, we may discover the source of our suffering together. And if we may support each others in cutting off the source of nutriment that has brought the suffering to us, and we may cultivate a lotus together. We may help each others to handle the mud in such a way we can produce beautiful lotus and we do not discriminate against the mud, the suffering anymore. Instead, we know how to learn from it and how to make good use of it. The path of the Buddha is the path called the Middle Way. The Middle Way is the way transcending pairs of opposites. It's not caught either by the notion of birth and death, being and non-being and so on.:Unquote